


Téa has nightmares

by LizzieHopscotch



Series: How Seto Kaiba Learned the Joys of Friendship [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Battle City Arc, F/M, Flashbacks, Gen, Virtual World Arc, anime verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 13:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13881618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizzieHopscotch/pseuds/LizzieHopscotch
Summary: Téa has nightmares. Kaiba helps her.





	Téa has nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Wow it's been forever since I posted something. Finally managed to beat the writers block!

The blimp was finally on the ground, and all the competitors were soundly asleep. The final duels of Battle City began in the morning, and after the ordeal of Noah’s virtual world everyone needed some rest.  Téa couldn’t remember the last time she slept properly. Logically she knew that it wasn’t that long ago, the time spent in the virtual world wasn’t equal to the time that passed in reality. But still, could virtual sleep count as actual sleep? Or maybe the entire experience counted as a really long dream.

She thought it might be the latter, since she couldn’t get to sleep at _all._ She’d tossed and turned, got some milk, counted eleventy billion sleep and still nothing worked. She sighed and finally got up and picked her way past Serenity, who she was sharing a room with, silently exiting into the hallway. A walk would help, she thought, use up some of that leftover energy.  

She walked in a daze, her overactive mind going over events and how everything could have gone so wrong. It didn’t take long for her to realise that she had no idea where in the blimp she was, thanks to Kaiba’s liking for cold steel and identical hallways. Téa sighed and kept going. Maybe someone else would be awake and they could point her in the right direction. Oh, that’s right! The last time this happened Kaiba was still awake, maybe she should try and find that computer room again?

With renewed purpose she started walking through the halls again, only to collide with a hard object.

Hands reached out and grabbed her arms, stopping her from falling over.

“Téa? Why aren’t you asleep?”

“Kaiba!” Téa smiled. “I was just looking for you!”

“Really?” he said sceptically.

“I went for a walk because I couldn’t sleep, and then I got lost,” she confessed.

He hadn’t let her go yet, his grip loose like he couldn’t decide whether to let go or pull her closer.

“No geek squad to bail you out?”

“Hey be nice. We were all getting along, remember?”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Must be nice,” Téa said quietly. “I can’t seem to forget.”

His hands fell from her, and she tried not to be too disappointed. They had been warm.

“Come on,” he said, looking down at her with furrowed brows. “This way.”

He strode through the corridors, not bothering to check if she was following. She shook her head at him, before trotting behind him to catch up. A left turn, then a right, and then she was through a door into a small kitchen and sitting area. Kaiba moved around the cupboards, grabbing two mugs and switching on the kettle.

She moved over to the sofa and spotted one of Mokuba’s school books under the table. He’d brought her to their private area, a place she was sure no one was welcome. She smiled where he couldn’t see her. It was strange, they’d been friends for a while now and these moments of kindness were still unexpected to her. Every now and then she had the nagging feeling that the other shoe would drop and Kaiba would reveal it was all a trick. Then he’d do something like bring her ice cream, or lend her his umbrella, or send her a cat video and she’d forget those worries.

“How’s Mokuba?” Téa asked, sitting down and wrapping her arms around a cushion. “Is he okay after Noah brainwashed him?”

Kaiba was silent. A spoon clicked against the side of the mug as he stirred the hot drinks. For a while that was the only sound in the room, before he carried them over to her.

“Here,” he handed her a mug. “Have some hot chocolate. It’s only the instant kind, but it should help a little,”

“Thanks,” she said, relishing the heated ceramic in her hands. She didn’t mind that it was almost too hot to hold. They sipped their drinks quietly, a careful distance between them.

“Mokuba will be fine,” he said eventually. “He’s putting on a cheerful face for the tournament, but he doesn’t seem to remember half of it which helps I think,”

Téa winced inwardly. That never seemed to work for her.

“I’m glad he’ll be okay,” she said instead. “I guess no one is really at a hundred per cent right now. After everything that happened, it was good of you to postpone the rest of the tournament for one night.”

“Yeah well, there’s no point crushing those two dorks when they’re too tired to properly appreciate their defeat,”

Téa laughed. “Your sense of fair play is truly remarkable.”

“Why are you awake Téa? The rest of your friends are off sleeping like babies, why aren’t you?”

Téa’s hands tightened on her drank. It was starting to cool.

“I’ve been having nightmares,” she said quietly, eyes watching her hot chocolate swirl in her mug. “They’ve been going on since the docks, and now I’m just too afraid to sleep.”

She hated how her voice started to crack.

“I never did as you what happened to you after we all got separated,”

“To be fair, you had a lot going on,”

“But still.”

He watched her for a moment. She wouldn’t look at him, instead holding the cushion and drink close to her. This wasn’t his area of expertise, he could admit that. Even with Mokuba he sometimes found it difficult to offer his brother the comfort he needed. His usual solution would be to throw them both into work, some new project to distract themselves from whatever had tried to tear them apart this time.

Sometimes they were successful, sometimes not.

Sometimes Mokuba would sneak into his room in the dead of night, only able to sleep if he knew Seto was still there.

Slowly he reached out, placing a hand on her knee. He waited until she would meet his eyes.

“Tell me.”

~*~

The desert was hot, dry, and never ending.

She regretted her shoe choice and would in fact give up her entire collection for a cup of water. She shook her head and kept going. She had to remember, none of this was really real. It was all fake, the sand, the heat, her thirst. It was computer simulated.

None of it was _real_.

She was still afraid.

The last time she’d been so long she had been locked in a room and beaten. But she didn’t let that beat her! She told herself, stubbornly trudging along. She was Téa Gardner and she would not be defeated by some old men who couldn’t handle disappointment.

She would find her friends and when they were all together again they’d bust out of here and give the Big Five an ass whooping they’d never forget!

She’d-!

Talk to penguins?

Okay she had to admit that this was weird, even for a video game, but whatever she needed to talk to _someone_ in this desert world.

They had a pretty good rapport going as well, which is probably why the giants attacked.

Damn Noah!

~*~

“You were nearly eaten by giants?”

“Yeah, before the penguins ‘rescued’ me.”

“’Rescued’?”

“Mmm, my fine feathery friends happily delivered me to Crump,”

“Ugh, that guy. Did you know he wanted to open a penguin theme park? Moron,”

“He...may have mentioned it. Once or twice,”

~*~

Cards scrolled in front of her and Téa couldn’t help but panic. There were so many to choose from, how could she pick. Her hands shook from more than the cold, and she took deep breaths, trying to steady them.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “How about…”

Her fingers moved quickly as she began to build her deck, desperately trying to remember what Kaiba had done, god was it just last night? Did time even exist here? Kaiba had rolled the chair over to her and then…

_“So, what do you do when you can’t sleep?” Téa asked, sitting down next to him._

_“Put my deck together,” was the quick answer._

_“Of course, you do, why am I not surprised.” She sighed and shook her head._

_They were both quiet for a moment._

_“Are you worried?”_

_“About what? Marik? I’ll crush him as well.”_

_“Which is why you’re going through your deck again?”_

_“Fine then,” Kaiba held out his hand. “Give me yours.”_

_“Mine?”_

_“You’re friends with two top duellists, of course you have one,”_

_“So, you’re finally admitting Joey’s a top duellist?” she smirked, reaching into her pocket and handing it over._

_“Don’t even joke about something so ridiculous.”_

By the time she’d finished her hands were steady. Kaiba had talked a lot about remembering to balance out her deck, and Yugi always talked about putting your heart into it as well. As the cards faded from view and the duel disk locked itself onto her arm she didn’t feel so alone anymore, standing in this field of ice and snow. She knew she could win now that she’d placed her friends in her deck.

Not literally though. Not like Bakura had done. She wondered what it said about her life that she had to make that clarification, even in her own head.

Then the duel began in earnest.

What had she been _thinking_.

She couldn’t win, there was no way. She was so cold; her legs were going numb and she was sure frost bite was setting in. She could barely hold on to her hand she was shivering so much. How was this _happening_? Nothing in this world was meant to be real, she couldn’t touch the flowers before they were holograms. Even when Kaiba had been trapped in his virtual game it hadn’t been like _this_. The temperature had always been temperate, even when crossing the desert, and even picking things up had felt slightly off, like everything could crumble into dust.

The ice slowly creeped up her body as her thoughts whirled, until she could only barely reach her duel disk.

_Please_ , she begged, her fingers grasping at the deck. _Someone, **help me**_ **.**

~*~

Kaiba grimaced, trying not to think of the girl next to him being frozen forever. It explained why she had held on so tightly to her mug though. Now it sat on the table, her hands moving freely as she told her story.

“How did you beat him?”

She went very still. 

“You can’t be mad.”

“…why would I be mad?”

“Well…”

~*~

It was the last turn and Téa knew it.

Dark Magician Girl stood resolutely on the field, ready to defend her against whatever Crump would throw at her.

At which point she’d shatter and Téa’s mind would be trapped forever.

Is this how Yugi feels? She wondered as she reached for her deck. Every time he duels and is backed into a corner, does he feel this desperation? This fear? How does he do this? Her heart hammered against her chest, God she wished she had her friends with her.

She drew her card.

Her eyes widened as she registered exactly what she held. She hadn’t even realised she’d chosen it.

She placed the Blue Eyes White Dragon in her hand.

One thought flashed clearly in her skittering thoughts.

Kaiba must _never_ know.

Okay, she breathed, now what?

Oh.

Of course.

It was funny, she mused as she got ready. The crippling sense of aloneness that had bothered her since the desert was gone. Staring at the monsters belonging to two of her best friends it had evaporated. She just wished the ice would go the same way.

Crump knew he was in trouble when he realised the girl had stopped shaking. He snarled inwardly, there was no way this girl could beat him he had calculated this duel precisely. She was the weak link out of all them and he was going to enjoy that young body of hers to the fullest. It didn’t matter what card she thought could beat him.

“Alright, Crump, here we go! I use the magic card, Polymerisation, fusing my Dark Magician Girl and- “she paused to smirk at her opponent. She understood a little now why Kaiba liked to draw it out. It was _fun_ to know she had the upper hand for once.

“The Blue Eyes White Dragon!”

“Impossible!” Crump squawked.

“Why?” Téa asked. “Noah gave us all access to the _entire card database_. Remember? They fuse together to form the Dark Magician Girl Dragon Knight!”

The monsters reformed on the field, the Dark Magician girl now outfitted with shimmering blue armour protecting her, and her magic staff topped with the head of the Blue Eyes.

“Attack his monsters!” Téa demanded, her eyes burning with the victory she knew was in reach. Crump was panicking, she could see it, _hear_ it in his screeching. Deep inside her, in the shadows of her heart that she usually tried to ignore and keep hidden, a fierce sense of satisfaction burned at his fear. How dare he do this to her. _How dare he._

His monsters were wiped out and in-between one blink and the next the monstrous penguin was frozen solid.

Téa fell to her knees as the ice around her vanished, barely hearing Yugi call out to her through the exhaustion.

~*~

Kaiba is not blushing.

He’s _not_.

Téa was squirming slightly in her seat, refusing to look at him.

“Are you mad?” she said. “I know Blue Eyes is important to you, I just!”

She fell silent. She wasn’t sure how she could explain her actions without sounding pathetic or insane.

“It just…made me feel better you know? Having it in my deck. Like you were there helping me.” She finally looked at him.

“Thank you, Seto,”

“I’m honoured,” he said quietly. “That you thought I could help you,”

~*~

Mokuba was gone and everything was devolving into chaos.

Everyone had a different idea of what to do next and they were just standing there arguing as Mokuba was taken further and further away. The poor kid was always getting snatched, he didn’t deserve to be targeted like this. And Kaiba must be going out of his mind with worry.

And she wasn’t far behind him.  

“We should follow Kaiba!” Téa finally snapped. “We have to save Mokuba!”

“Forget about him!” Joey said. “We have to get Tristan’s body back!”

“Which we can only do by going after Mokuba. Hello! It was Tristan that grabbed him, Joey!”

“As if. Tristan would never do that, and how do we know that was even Tristan’s body?” Duke put his two cents in, Yugi nodding along.

“Of course it wasn’t!” God why was this so difficult for them to get? “None of this is _real,_ remember? His body isn’t here, this entire thing is happening inside our heads, how else do you explain how realistic it all is?”

“Then we find where his mind is being stored,” Joey shot back.

Between them all on the ground the robot monkey Serenity picked up was going nuts, adding to the noise as the usually close friends argued.

“Fine!” Téa snapped, finally reaching the end of her tether. “You guys go after Tristan’s mind, I’m going after Kaiba.”

“What, that rich boy suddenly more important than one of your best friends?”

“Tristan has all of you. Who does Seto have here?” she demanded.

Unexpectedly it was Serenity who put an end to the arguing by pointing out that Noah was after Kaiba and would eventually have to show himself. When that happened, then they could get Tristan back.

Téa appreciated the help, especially as Duke hotwired the truck and they raced along the road, but she couldn’t help but notice that it still wasn’t a priority to help save Kaiba and Mokuba. More like an added benefit.

She hated how her friends were determined to not get along.

~*~

“Tristan being trapped as a monkey is still the funniest thing I’ve ever heard,” Kaiba said, chuckling.

“Don’t be mean!” Téa smacked his arm lightly, before giggling into her hand.

She sighed, leaning against him.

Sometime during their talk, the two of them had drifted closer and closer.

“Honestly, I think watching you duel Lector was the most worried I’ve ever been watching you duel,”

“Not even against Noah?”

“No, I knew you would win that one,”

“Well, I knew I would defeat Lector,”

“I’m sure you did,” Téa rolled her eyes.

He nudged her lightly with his shoulder for it, laughing lightly when she knocked him back. Her tiny shoulders, though strong from all her dancing, barely made him budge. He put his arm around her and she relaxed against him.

Both were surprised at how comfortable it felt.

~*~

Téa cursed Kaiba and his stupidly long legs. She’d chased after him as soon as he’d started running and it was still all she could do to keep him in sight. In the beginning she had heard Yugi running behind her, but after the fork in the road she couldn’t hear him anymore. She didn’t dare slow down though, not when it would result in Kaiba facing Noah on his own.

“Kaiba! Wait up!” she panted.

He ignored her, just continued to run along the road. Was it a theme, she wondered, for Noah to trap people in never ending loops and landscapes?

“Seto!”

Finally, _finally_ , he stopped.

“Go back, Téa. I don’t need your help.” He kept his back to her and began walking again.

“Like hell I will! Do you think I run after people in heels for just _anyone_ , don’t be stupid.”

She jogged past him, forcing him to stop and finally look at her.

“You promised me, remember?”

He closed his eyes in resignation.

“Right, to let you help me when I needed it,”

She smiled brightly.

“Exactly! Now let’s go get Mokuba.” She started walking again, turning to look at him over her shoulder.  “Together.”

Now there would be no getting rid of her.

~*~

“And you know the rest after that.” Téa said.

“Yeah,” Kaiba sighed.

He could feel Téa relaxing against him, as though being able to talk about what happened to her had released all the tension in her body. He couldn’t help the relief that flooded through him at that. He had been able to help her after all, had done it _right_ for once.

“Thanks for coming after me,” he said.

“I wasn’t just going to let you go off on your own, even if you did ditch us while Yugi and Joey battled the Big Five,”

“I couldn’t keep my promise to you, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Seto. I understand why you wanted to go it alone,”

He was quiet for a moment, looking out the window. The sky was just beginning to turn pink and he could see the outline of the tower.

“Do you know why I built that tower?”

She shook her head.

“I built it because I wanted to put everything Gozaboro did behind me. To have my wreck of a childhood shoved in my face like that again and again was not…pleasant.”

He struggled to find the right words to describe just how unsettling it was to see his past replayed in live colour. The struggles he and Mokuba had faced to stay together, and the never-ending battle that was his life in Gozaboro’s care.

“He’s gone for good now though, right?” Téa asked nervously.

“Yeah, the virtual world crumbled around him _and_ the Big Five.”

He paused for a moment, thinking he finally knew what was unsettling her so badly.

“You know you’re not still in that world, don’t you? We escaped, they can’t reach you here.”

“I know. I know that.”

Unaware she was even doing it she reached up to grasp at Kaiba’s hand hanging over her shoulder. He squeezed her hand back gently as she held on to him.

“Then why the night time walks? This is the second time I’ve found you like this.”

Téa grimaced.

“It’s silly,” she said. “It’s just…I can still feel the cold and…” she bit her lip. “I keep waking up in weird places, losing time. I’m afraid if I close my eyes then...”

She couldn’t quite finish her sentence, couldn’t quite say just how unsettling it all really was. She’d never had a history of sleep walking before, and it was starting to happen even when she _knew_ she was awake. Téa hated it. Absolutely hated it and she wanted it to _stop_.

Kaiba was quiet beside her, and she wondered if it would be this that would convince him to throw away their friendship.

(Again, a snide voice inside her whispered. She ignored it.)

Can’t have the CEO of Kaiba Corp being friends with a crazy girl.

He pushed her forward until she wasn’t leaning against him anymore.

“Seto?” she said, waiting for the hammer to fall

“Just a second,” he said. Quickly he took off his ever-present white coat and wrapped it against Téa, pulling her back against him.

“Seto?” Téa said again, even quieter. To her knowledge the only person ever given this treatment from Seto was Mokuba, and last she checked she was definitely too tall to be mistaken for his brother.

“Stay with me,” he said back, just as quiet. “I’ll make sure you don’t go anywhere.”

A breath she hadn’t realised she was holding escaped her, and she hesitantly placed her head against her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

The only response was the brief tightening of his arm around her, as the two sat in the silence watching the lightening sky.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!


End file.
